Headquarters — Hawthorne, California

Google Earth; Business Insider

SpaceX has an expansive campus just south of the Hawthorne Municipal Airport and Century Freeway. The headquarters building — an old Boeing facility — is topped with solar panels that form an "X" in negative space.

Next door is a building owned by Tesla (Musk's car company) and nearby are tooling and machining warehouses, where SpaceX fabricates rocket engines and other parts for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and soon the Mars-capable Big Falcon Rocket.

SpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility — McGregor, Texas

Google Earth; Business Insider

Shortly after Musk founded SpaceX, he scouted for a location to test-fire noisy rocket engines and launch prototype spacecraft. He ultimately took over the mothballed Beal Aerospace facility in McGregor, Texas.

The site was built by banking billionaire (and high-stakes gambler) Andrew Beal, already had rocket-engine-testing stands, and was remote enough to not bother too many locals, but close enough to habitation to support an engineering workforce.

Rocket parts built in California and elsewhere are put through the wringer in McGregor to make sure they'll stand up to the punishing forces of launch. Used rockets are also refurbished and tested at McGregor.

A Merlin rocket engine in a testing bay at SpaceX's development facility in McGregor, Texas.SpaceX

Launch Complex 39A — Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Google Earth; Business Insider

Famous for launching Apollo and space shuttle astronauts, SpaceX in 2014 signed a 20-year lease with NASA for rights to the pad. SpaceX plans to launch most of its fully upgraded Falcon 9 rockets from the site.

To keep up with the pace of these missions — in addition to all the spacecraft it lifts off from Florida — SpaceX leans on the US Air Force's launch site in Lompoc, California.

Starlink Satellite Factory — Redmond, Washington

Google Earth; Business Insider

In 2015, Musk spoke about an eyebrow-raising plan to surround Earth in thousands of satellites to bring high-speed broadband internet to every one on the planet.

The project is called Starlink, and Musk has since built a facility in Redmond, Washington, to build and test satellites. The plan is to build and launch roughly 12,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites— more than twice the number of spacecraft launched by humanity since the dawn of the Space Race.

The plan made a significant move forward in late February 2018 with the launch of two prototype satellites.

Big Falcon Rocket Factory — Port of Los Angeles (in planning)

SpaceX plans to build a 200,000-square-foot Mars spaceship factory in the Port of Los Angeles.
Google Earth; Business Insider

Ultimately, Musk wants to colonize Mars with a giant reusable spacecraft called the Big Falcon Rocket. But with little space in Hawthorne left to build a 348-foot-tall launcher — taller than the Statue of Liberty — SpaceX is looking to lease an 18-acre site in the Port of Los Angeles called Berth 240.

The Port is ready to give SpaceX the lease. Pending final approval by the city, construction on a giant Mars rocket factory will soon begin. It's located right on a water channel to make it easier to transport the largest US spacecraft ever constructed.

The destination for the first BFRs will likely be the very southern tip of Texas, though some testing may occur at the McGregor site. How the enormous rocket parts will get about 400 miles inland, SpaceX hasn't said.

SpaceX is hoping to turn the small village of Boca Chica into a commercial space port for BFR and perhaps other launches. Musk hopes to launch the first uncrewed mission to Mars in 2022, and the first crewed mission in 2024.

The extremely southern US site will give SpaceX launches a significant boost: The closer to the equator a mission is, the faster Earth's rotation is, and the less fuel a rocket has to burn to reach orbit.

Google Earth; Business Insider

22/

SpaceX also wants to to turn its BFR system into a high-speed Earth transportation system. But only time will tell if Musk's vision for SpaceX pans out the way he hopes it to.